Thinking of You

June 2nd is a day I will always remember, not because it's someone's birthday, or anniversary, or other special day one would want to celebrate. It's a day a young life was lost to a drunk driver.

She was the 2nd oldest daughter of a family that had attended our church for years.

We choose to remember the day to the family because we love them and know they will always remember too. Knowing others are continuing to stand with them while remembering their precious daughter helps them to heal and make some sort of sense out of a senseless situation. Amazingly, by God's grace, they are doing quite well.

These are this year's cards to the family.

The top one is for the mom and dad and children still at home. The bottom one is to the oldest daughter who was in the car at the time of the crash but survived. She was married last year, just one month after the first anniversary of her sister's death, so I felt it was appropriate to send her a card of her own.

Thank you to my SBS sister, Leslie, for sending me these perfect images with which to work!

May we all count our blessings, especially for the gift of life.

Two Reasons to Celebrate!

This is a card I did for our friend, Phil, who recently graduated with his Master of Divinity degree...quite a feat considering he's a father of 4 daughters and pastors a fairly large church! I downloaded his picture from our fellowship's website; and since it was black & white, I did the whole card the same, except for the cap! He got a big kick out of it! Of course when we ran into he and his wife at a favorite eatery, we treated them both to ice cream in honor of his accomplishments!

This next picture is one I wanted to share of my hubby and daughter. It was taken the day before she left for New York City and the school she would attend for 5 weeks taking 2 summer courses. We celebrated her upcoming adventure by taking her out for some good, old-fashioned Italian food at one of her favorite places to eat - The Olive Garden! I just love reasons to celebrate! Don't you?

Arial View!

I had the MOST amazing morning yesterday!

I went up in my friend's husband's plane with him,

and what a time we had!

Here's a few of the pics I took while enjoying the view!

This first one is of the Letchworth Gorge.

This next one is of the MM Dam. As you can see, the water level is pretty low.

And this one is the arial view of our house! My hubby said it looks like the compound of Waco, Texas - all secluded and tucked back in the trees!
I don't think so!

And this last one is of me in front of the plane, safely on the ground.
It was a great time in the air!

The next thing I want to do is go up in a hot air balloon.

My friend, whose husband I went flying with, says I'm a thrillseeker.

Would you agree?

A Flower Card w/ A Double Purpose

I did a workshop on Saturday for a group of teachers, and the last project we did was to make these cute flowers on large paperclips. I wore mine on my shirt pocket til the group was finished with the other 2 card projects. They were so excited to learn they were going to be making these too! I cut them out with my Cricut ahead of time and had them all packaged in sets. All the girls needed to do was adhere dimensionals between the layers.

Since I needed to make a Thank You card for a friend
once home, I decided to make her a flower too and put it on her card. Being a teacher as well I thought she could use her's as a bookmark!

The sizes of each layer starting at the top:
3/4" flower, 1" circle, 1-1/2" flower, 2-1/2" flower, 3" flower.

Hope your flowers are blooming ladies!

Another Teenager in the House!

Well, I survived my daughter's sleepover birthday party. Only 8 of her 10 invited friends could come, but evenso, I was prepared for a sleepless night of giggles and girls running up and down the stairs, to and from the kitchen, in search of morsels of food with which to satisfy their middle of the night cravings. Heaven only knows that a full sheet pizza would never be enough!!! And even though the giggles and runnings did happen, the girls were overall pretty quiet in spite of the corporate desire for fun! But I do need to make a run to the grocery store now.

They finally settled down around 1:00am which meant I could finally get some sleep myself. As morning came and they emerged from their minimal-sleep-and-snack-induced comas, they enjoyed a pancake breakfast prepared by the King in my kitchen, my husband! After more chatting, giggling and an explosion of new energy, they enjoyed a balloon stomp in the front yard followed by some "Slip-n-Slide" fun made from a tarp, alot of dish soap and the hose. (Note to self: put dish soap on your shopping list.)

After showers to wash off the dish soap, they prepared for my friend, Amy, to come so they could have their makeovers - the highlight of the party! We did "before" and "after" pictures too which the girls loved seeing.

By the time everyone left, I was exhausted. Even though my hubby cooked breakfast, he wasn't in the "nuts & bolts" of the party so he was pretty much free to do as he pleased. My #1 son actually left home for the ordeal so he didn't have to deal with hormonal girls. My #2 son thrived on the attention he received from mimicking and mocking them endlessly, though it wasn't the kind of attention I enjoyed hearing repeatedly! It was I who oversaw everything: the meals, the games, the makeovers, the cake & ice cream, and all the transitions in between. And I was tired.

Thank goodness Mother's Day was Sunday! It was my turn to be doted on and you'd better believe I took full advantage of the situation! I had a fabulous day at church (my husband's an awesome preacher!), then he barbecued salmon on the grill. Mmmm-mmmm good! Strawberry shortcake for dessert (and no dishes because someone else did them!) and voila! The perfect day!

I hope all you mothers had a great day too!

(Oh yeah...here's my daughter's birthday card I made!)

Mother's Day is Coming!

Mother's Day is just a few days away. I love it because it's a day to be pampered, even just a little, and not have to cook! My hubby usually goes overboard in the "making it special" way, so I know this coming Mother's Day will be a day to be remembered just like the rest.

Since it's also my daughter, Hannah's, birthday, I've chosen to show off my Mother's Day cards now so I might highlight her special day later. Actually she's having a sleepover party with 10 girls on Friday night, and a Mary Kay skin-care class on Saturday by my friend who is also going to show them how to correctly put on make-up so it doesn't look like they've put it on with a shovel! Since May 10th will officially mark Hannah's crossing into teenagerhood, I thought this class to be quite appropriate since I'm going to start letting her wear a little make-up now too, not much, but a little. But first, proper skin care to fight those blasted blemishes!!!

Anywho...these cards are for Eric's mom in Florida and my mom in California. Both were sketches I copied from SBS blogging sisters Anne & Kristen. I'm hoping neither mom reads my blog between now and the time they each receive their gifts, but if they do...Here's to you Mom(s)! We love you and pray you have a most marvelous day!!!

Praying For You Peggy!

A dear lady from church has been having some health problems which required surgery and now a nursing home stay for rest and recuperation. She's been through the ringer and every now and then I like to send her a cheery card. This is yesterday's installment.

I cut out both the oval hole on the front and the scallped edge around it with my Nesties and of course Cuttlebugged the front of the card. On the inside I popped up an image from SUs Merci which shows through the front oval. I embossed the image with SUs Iridescent Ice, saturated it with water, then touched the water pools with my AquaPainter which had been dipped in reinkers. After it dried (about 30 minutes), I then cut out the image. This probably wasn't the best image to use for this (a large flower would've been better!) but it came out okay anyway.

The flower is an off-white one that I colored with markers. The sentiment is from SUs Thoughts and Prayers which I love!

Get better soon Peggy!

Ode to Rox

I've been so remiss in my duties!

I had meant to post this on May 2nd because that's when Rox's birthday was.

But I forgot.

Rox is my friend who did the 60-mile WALK in Washington DC with me last year.

She's also the one who just had surgery on her foot, which isn't in and of itself a bad thing considering she'll be pain-free once she's all healed. (No, the WALK didn't do this to her!)

And having all that time off from work isn't so bad either. It gives her lots of play time she isn't usually afforded due to her full-time job.

At least my card to her was on time even though this post was not.

She was pampered and spoiled with a wonderful meal prepared by her DH, presents and flowers from family & friends, and an all-around good day in spite of having to lay around and be waited on in the name of "healing."

("Pass me my new Copics, would you please?

And that paper too. I have some coloring to do!")

I guess it could be worse, perish the thought!

I Love Surprises!

My SBS sister, Leslie, is amazing.

She's always thinking about others and

looking for ways to bless them.

Case in point - this card & images I just received in the mail!

There's enough images here to keep me busy for months!

So why am I sitting here? Good question!

Toodle-ooo...I'm off to my craft room!

Thank you Leslie!